1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic still camera for taking and recording a still image.
2. Related Background Art
There are already proposed electronic still cameras for converting the image of an object into an image signal by an image pickup device such as a CCD and storing said image signal in a semiconductor memory.
Such electronic still cameras are so constructed as to focus the image of the object onto the image pickup device by means of an optical lens, to convert the analog image signal obtained by conversion in said image pickup device into digital image data by an A/D converter, and to store said digital image data into a memory card composed of a semiconductor memory.
Such conventional electronic still cameras have been associated with a drawback, in case of taking the image of an object with a wide range of brightness, because of a limited latitude of the image pickup device. In particular, the image data in high brightness regions are converted to a minimum density with a loss of tonal rendition while those in low brightness regions are converted to a maximum density with a loss of tonal rendition.